Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a flat panel display embedding an optical imaging sensor such as a fingerprint image sensor. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a flat panel display embedding an optical imaging sensor including an ultra thin substrate providing the directional lights and an optical imaging sensor.
Description of the Related Art
Various computer based systems including the notebook computer, the tablet personal computer (or, PC), the smart phone, the personal digital assistants, the automated teller machines and/or the search information system have been developed. As these devices use and store the various personal information as well as the business information and the trade secrets, it is desirable to strengthen the securities for preventing these important data being leaked.
To do so, one method has been suggested for strengthening the security using an image sensor recognizing the authorized user's biological information. For example, the fingerprint sensor is generally used for enhancing the security when registering and authenticating is performed. The fingerprint sensor is for sensing the fingerprint of user. The fingerprint sensor may be categorized into the optical fingerprint sensor and the capacitive fingerprint sensor.
The optical fingerprint sensor uses a light source such as a light emitting diode (or LED) to irradiate lights and detects the lights reflected by the ridge of the fingerprint using a CMOS (or, complementary metal oxide semiconductor) image sensor. As the optical fingerprint sensor may scan the fingerprint using the LED lights, it is required that the sensor is equipped with an additional device for performing the scan process. There is a limitation to increasing the size of the object for scanning the image. Therefore, there are limitations for applying the optical fingerprint sensor to various applications such as combining with the display devices.
For conventional optical fingerprint sensors, known are a Korean patent 10-060817 registered on Jun. 26, 2006 of which title is “A display apparatus having fingerprint identification sensor” and a Korean patent application 10-2016-0043216 published on Apr. 21, 2016 of which title is “Display device including fingerprinting device.”
The above mentioned optical fingerprint sensor is configured to use the display area as the touch area for inputting the user's selection and the sense area for sensing the fingerprint. However, this optical fingerprint sensor uses the diffused (or diverged) lights having very low directivity. Therefore, there is a limitation to recognize the exact fingerprint pattern. When using the collimated lights such as the infrared laser having high directivity, it is very hard to generate the sensing lights to cover the wider area. Therefore, the fingerprint sensing area is restricted in a small area. In order to radiate the collimated lights over the wider scan area, specific scanning structure is required, so that this system is not suitable for portable or personal display apparatus.
Therefore, for portable devices embedding the fingerprint sensor, the capacitive fingerprint sensor is mainly used. However, the capacitive fingerprint sensor also has many problems.
The capacitive fingerprint sensor is configured to detect the difference of the electricity between the ridge and the valley of the fingerprint contacting on the fingerprint sensor. For conventional capacitive fingerprint sensors, known is a US patent application 2013/0307818 published on Nov. 21, 2013 of which title is “Capacitive Sensor Packaging.”
The above mentioned capacitive fingerprint sensor is configured as an assembly type embedding with a specific push button. It comprises a capacitive plate and a silicon wafer having a circuit for detecting the capacitive storage between the ridge and valley of the fingerprint. Generally, as the sizes of the ridge and valley of the fingerprint are very tiny, about 300˜500 μm (micrometer), the capacitive fingerprint sensor needs a high resolution sensor array and an integrated chip (or IC) for processing the fingerprint detection. To do so, the silicon wafer is configured to include the sensor array and the IC on one substrate.
However, when the high resolution sensor array and the IC are formed on the same silicon wafer, the assembly structure for joining the push button with the fingerprint sensor is required. Therefore, the structure would be very complex and further the non-display area (or bezel area) may be increased. In some cases, the push button (i.e., the home key of the smart phone) would be overlapped with the fingerprint sensor, so that the thickness of the whole device would be thick. Further, the sensing area for the fingerprint would be dependent on the size of the push button.
To solve above mentioned problems and limitations, some technologies have been suggested in which the touch sensor area is used as for sensing the fingerprint. For example, known are U.S. Pat. No. 8,564,314 issued on Oct. 22, 2013 of which title is “Capacitive touch sensor for identifying a fingerprint,” and Korean patent 10-1432988 registered on Aug. 18, 2014 of which title is “A capacitive touch screen for integrated of fingerprint recognition.”
In general cases of the personal portable devices such as the smart phones, an additional transparent film is attached for protecting the display glass panel. When the above mentioned technologies are applied to the personal portable devices, as attaching the protective film thereon, the performance for sensing or recognizing the fingerprint exactly would be remarkably degraded. In general, even though the protective film is attached, the touch function may be properly operated. However, the detection ability for the difference of the capacitive storage amount for sensing the fingerprint may be deteriorated by the protective film even though its thickness is very thin.
For a display embedding the capacitive fingerprint sensor, generally a protective film or a hardening glass may be further attached on the cover glass of the display. In that case, the recognition ability may be deteriorated. That is, the total thickness of the cover glass may affect to the sensitivity of the capacitive fingerprint sensor. In the interim, the diffused lights used in the sensing light source may affect to the sensitivity of the optical fingerprint sensor. When using the collimated lights for enhancing the sensitivity of the optical fingerprint sensor, the bulky and/or complex optical devices are required so that it is very hard to apply to a display for personal mobile device.
Consequently, there is a need for a new type optical image sensor capable of large area sensing, excellent resolution and accuracy, and having an ultra thin thickness structure. In particular, there is an increasing need for an optical image sensor which is easy to develop various information processing apparatuses in combination with the flat panel displays.